Developing thankful children that are full of gratitude is hard. All moms struggle with making sure their children truly appreciate all that they are given. In today’s world of excess, I struggle with making sure my children know how thankful they should be for all we have. We are given one month out of the year to concentrate on giving thanks. So, in my house, I declared November “Being Thankful Everyday Month”.
During the month of November I try to make a conscious effort to acknowledge our thanks everyday!
Thus, I began using The Thankful Tree as a way of expressing thanks everyday. Plus, I can create the tree from odds and ends around the house. Each day mom, dad, and the kids write one thing that they are thankful for on a tag or paper leaf and hang it on the tree. I ask them to write their name on the back of the tag/leaf. On Thanksgiving we read our own tags/leaves to one another. Then each year I keep the them as a reminder of how lucky we were that year. I place our tag/leaves in a plastic bag to preserve them and write the date on the bag.
SUPPLIES:
- Tree
- Leaves/Tags [Printable]
- String/Twine
- Pencil
First, find something that can be used as a tree. This year I am using a small ornament holder. Last year I used twigs from the yard and placed them in a vase.
Next, I found tags to hang off the tree. I’ve also cut out leaves from construction paper.
Download a printable pattern of leaves to use for cutouts here:
Then I either tie the tags on with string or punch a hole in the tag and hang it off a branch.
Each day the family writes one thing they are thankful for and hangs it off the tree.
Being able to see what each person wrote on Thanksgiving Day is really exciting!
[…] old, completely grown up. It’s because it’s now up to me to create memories and new traditions for my family. I want my son to grow up with wonderful and warm holiday memories like I […]